The present invention relates to a commercial retail transaction system and method, for conducting monetary payment transactions with a minimal use of coins.
The occurrence of retail transactions in which a purchaser pays in cash, often results in the return of bills and coins. Coins accumulate in the possession of customers, stored in containers, many become lost.
In an attempt to solve that problem, coin-return facilities have been established at which customers can return coins in exchange for cash or vouchers. However, that requires that customers collect and transport their accumulated coins, often quite heavy, to the coin-return facility.
It has also been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,869,826 that customers purchase a magnetic stripe data card which stores a coin balance, e.g., up to ninety-nine cents. The customers can use such a coin card in place of coins when making a purchase. The card would interface with a point-of-sale (POS) terminal which calculates the remaining value of the card. However, the use of such cards requires that customers conduct repeated transactions in order to purchase new coin cards.